Learned Helplessness: Difference between revisions

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[https://thebasics.guide/learned-helplessness/ Learned helplessness] on [https://thebasics.guide The Basics Guide]
[https://thebasics.guide/learned-helplessness/ Learned helplessness] on [https://thebasics.guide The Basics Guide]
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|name=Eric Weinstein
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|content=Attempt @1tweet #foo summary: 'Massively parallel [[Learned Helplessness|learned helplessness]] intervention via saturation Asabiyyah-boarding'
|timestamp=11:03 PM Ā· Jun 30, 2010
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|name=Eric Weinstein
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|content=Obviously unworkable ideas 1, [[Learned Helplessness]] 0.
Congratulations to everyone at SpaceX.
|timestamp=8:03 AM Ā· May 22, 2012
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|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@Martyrmade Interesting point. But this is a warning shot across the bow of a new ship. A peaceful demonstration of less peaceful power.
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|name=Eric Weinstein
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|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=It's easy to miss a bigger point: folks shaking off our national [[Learned Helplessness|learned helplessness]]. Folks who can overwhelm D.C. won't need fear as much. https://t.co/cBWHpgzcz6
|timestamp=8:38 PM Ā· Jan 21, 2017
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|timestamp=8:45 PM Ā· Jan 21, 2017
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|content=.@united There has to be a hack against mere [[Learned Helplessness|learned helplessness]]. If we can't avoid @united, driving their cost is necessary to complete the market.
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|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/852161794730729474
|name=Eric Weinstein
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|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=Can we drown out @united's safety script w passenger participation?
Ex: "In the unlikely event of a waterboarding"
<nowiki>#</nowiki>UnitedAirlinesHorrorShow
|timestamp=2:09 PM Ā· Apr 12, 2017
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|timestamp=2:13 PM Ā· Apr 12, 2017
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|name=Eric Weinstein
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|content=Can we stop pretending that we care as a nation? Because clearly we donā€™t. There can be 10 of these in a month and we donā€™t do a thing. We donā€™t try things. We donā€™t experiment. We sit here like low agency idiots suffering from [[Learned Helplessness|learned helplessness]].
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|content=Iā€™m numbed. I think Iā€™m done talking about whatever the current mass shooting is. I want to say to all of us who still have children, parents, spouses, hold them close. Iā€™m so sorry for all who are about to lose them during September. Which hasnā€™t happened yet. But it will.
|timestamp=1:50 AM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
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|timestamp=1:50 AM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
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|content=BTW I donā€™t mean to pick on the specific post. There are many such tweets and DMs making the same points with not much variation. But it has become almost an automatedĀ  reflex despite there being some validity in the arguments.
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|content=I suggested that Iā€™m numbed by our [[Learned Helplessness|learned helplessness]] around an increasingly lethal US mass shooting problem *without* mentioning gun control. Suddenly Iā€™m an irrational jerk who doesnā€™t care about auto accidents, water, pools, etc and let everyone down?
|timestamp=2:56 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
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|content=Immediately lecturing folks feeling specific loss of life in a single community (and who are not yet even talking 2nd amendment rights) on general swimming pool safety, or how disappointed you are in the logic of the posters is bad optics &amp; an excellent way to lose your argument.
|timestamp=2:56 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
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|content=Word to the wise: wait for someone (like me) to actually make a bad argument. I might! But a mass shooting of say N dead in one school community with a note from a deliberate killer with a known mental health history is a bigger deal for society than N diffuse auto fatalities.
|timestamp=2:56 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
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|timestamp=3:08 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
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|content=@Neubian Agreed.
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|content=Letā€™s talk about the next major US school shooting with more than 3 dead. Those folks are currently alive. They are just having a day today like anyone else. They donā€™t need our thoughts &amp; prayers yet.Ā  We could take action to save those lives. We know it is going to happen.
Nu?
|timestamp=4:03 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@RealJimbabwe Donā€™t forget malaria. Or suicide. Or snakes.
|timestamp=4:09 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@RichyDispatch I donā€™t like mondays.
|timestamp=4:10 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@CarrisJake Hereā€™s my plan: That we begin talking ahead of time and not retroactively. Move to the next one. Like it is ā€œGroundhog dayā€. Letā€™s set a schedule of anticipation and see if it changes anything. Why are we exhibiting [[Learned Helplessness|learned helplessness]]? Makes no sense.
|timestamp=4:12 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@CarrisJake Gun control is feared by many of my fellow Americans. Ok. So...I want the strong 2A crowd to take the lead. What real plan do we have that we can fund and implement to get these deaths toward numbers that arenā€™t an embarrassment?
|timestamp=4:15 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@Lann5000 @CarrisJake Okay. Do we raise taxes and do mental health checks? What is it we do to avoid restrictions on firearm ownership to get good results?
|timestamp=4:17 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@IbnChristo So, this is a negative externality of freedom and we are on the efficient frontier?
|timestamp=4:17 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@Beefalo37 I just took it. My solution is to shift the burden onto future shootings so that we can find out why we refuse to cry over milk that is as yet unspilled. As it were.
|timestamp=4:19 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@Thinkofwhy So this is too far down the list and we should not over focus?
|timestamp=4:20 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@JamesDeanAnder1 So, focus on the media distortion?
|timestamp=4:21 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@JamesDeanAnder1 @RealSaavedra So prioritize things that are more deadly?
|timestamp=4:29 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@HamfistHarold @CarrisJake I donā€™t hate armed guards. Fill me in. How does this part of the conversation go when you bring it up? Iā€™m not a veteran of this stalemate. More of a casual observer. Thanks.
|timestamp=5:47 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@CrisVerdonik I want to understand what a conversation looks like that isnā€™t held in the aftermath of a shooting. I always see this done after a shooting with bodies that are still warm and grieving parents everywhere. I want to understand the issue. Why do we deadlock? Itā€™s sad &amp; surprising.
|timestamp=5:52 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@CoffeeBear5 Sure.
|timestamp=5:52 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@MiTenYo This is a highly conserved quasi response. Not without some merit. But also oddly reflexive as well.
|timestamp=5:54 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@BadHombreMarcoB That makes some sense. It is a possible approach. Does that inhibit shooters or just limit their damage in your opinion? Has it been studied?
|timestamp=5:56 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=@BadHombreMarcoB Iā€™m just ignorant of the theory here.
|timestamp=5:57 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|timestamp=5:58 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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|content=[[Learned Helplessness|Learned helplessness]] is UnAmerican. This is like China or Russia controlling our minds from a bad sci-fi thriller. But we are being controlled by our grandparents and parents instead. And they donā€™t care.
This is beyond insane and it has never been like this. Ever.
Rant over.
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|content=Listen carefully: you donā€™t have to elect Biden or Trump.
The world has woken up via being suddenly shut in doors by crazy incompetent people largely born in the 1940s and 1950s without a coherent explanation. Or plan.
Lives lost. Nurses sacrificed. Jobs &amp; businesses destroyed.
|timestamp=5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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|content=Pick someone who never met Jeffrey Epstein. Pick someone who can code or with a masters degree or better in STEM.
You donā€™t have to keep picking the card the magician is forcing you to select as your card. Itā€™s not YOUR card. Itā€™s the magicianā€™s card. Grab the magicians wrist.
|timestamp=5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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|content=You would be better off with a thoughtful and competent 45 year old electrician or self made businessperson as president. Almost no ordinary people have family business interests in China or Ukraine. Chose anyone without dementia. Pick someone who canā€™t remember the moon landing.
|timestamp=5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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|content=You donā€™t have to take these choices. *Nobody* smart wants these people except to defeat each other. You donā€™t really like Fox. Or CNN. Or the NYT. Except when they go after your enemies.
Okay. So go cold turkey. Call them all what they are: The UnWorkables.
|timestamp=5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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|name=Eric Weinstein
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|content=If the enormous generation of you young folk canā€™t use this mismanagement of a pandemic by a bipartisan kleptocratic gerontocracy, then you arenā€™t thinking like young folk at all. Demand your debt free future and the removal of this preposterous class of ancient legacy predators.
|timestamp=5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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|content=That card says ā€œBidenā€. Take that card and a lighter and set it on fire. Then grab the deck and pick another card, rifle it to check for markings on the back, look to see if they all say Biden, and chose a different card at random. This was never a primary. There was no election.
|timestamp=5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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|timestamp=5:58 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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|content=@agoonforhire Thank you for this!
|thread=
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|content=I think thatā€™s great. Where we differ is that I donā€™t think Earth, our Moon &amp; Mars plus space stations connected by rockets give us much real diversity. Itā€™s barely doable. But assume you could make it work. I would want to run 1000s of uncorrelated experiments as most will fail.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=Letā€™s be clear about this weird sounding issue.
@elonmusk is one of the only minds properly focused in public on the issue of the current danger to human consciousness from having all known intelligent life in the universe on a single terrestrial surface. His top idea: rockets.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=But yes, he believes. In fun. In hope. In ending the epidemic of [[Learned Helplessness|learned helplessness]] that has infected everyone else. So Iā€™m a pretty die hard Elon supporter. Not because I agree w/ everything. But he gets **the** big issue right. We need to end the single correlated experiment.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=And if we are stuck in this solar system with the physics we know there is only one good surface and two marginal ones.
Faster than light spacetime travel is bullshit. But going beyond Einstein is not.
Itā€™s unbelievably hard, but everything Elon does is hard. Like hope.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=But because Elon is so smart, I donā€™t discount the idea that he isnā€™t interested in finding out if post-Einsteinian physics for some reason. I just doesnā€™t add up to me, but maybe he knows something I donā€™t. But north of $100B w/ his knowledge of physics, he could change it all.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=Now he may have a reason. But I have never heard him address this so it just makes no sense to me. No one is taking the need to go beyond Einstein seriously so we are pretty much trapped here in this solar system with the physics we know. That means three terrestrial surfaces.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=So on the main issue we agree. The second issue is where we differ. A
multi multi billionaire (12 digits!) as smart as Elon w a physics background could diversify &amp; place a small 2nd bet on rendering General Relativity a mere effective theory by single handedly fixing physics.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=I just want to know why no one asks this question. Lex could do it. Joe could do it. But he doesnā€™t seem to address it so I have no idea what is going on. Itā€™s not some special insight of mine. Our best hope for his stated dream is new physics. And making physics rich is cheap.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=And the two multi billionaires I believe have the best technical chops to do this are Jim Simons and Elon Musk. But no one wants to build institutions that can do this because our institutions havenā€™t worked well enough since the Apollo program. So, Iā€™m hopeful he gets asked.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=Now that doesnā€™t strike me as a small ask. Itā€™s a big bill. But it is also our best hope. Imagine COVID was radioactive fallout from a serious nuclear exchange and compute half lives. Or imagine a climate disaster.
Elon shouldnā€™t have to do this. But government canā€™t anymore.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=Imagine you wanted to pay 2m salary to all the top 50 theorists in the world for 10 years to get them all to move to a couple of centers to free them from careerist temptations so they could at last swing for the fences. The salaries would be about 0.005 of current net worth.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=#OccupyMars is good, but #FreeThePhysicists isnā€™t even as popular as #FreeTheNipple or #FreeBeer
Take a look around you. Much as I love it, this place is likely going to blow.
Elon is right: time to diversify. And we need to have fun if we are going to be saving ourselves. šŸ™
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=There isnā€™t much left that works in this area. Iā€™m still betting on Elon making sense. Itā€™s one of our last really good hopes. And returning fun and mischief to public spirited scientific attempts to ā€œpreserve the light of human consciousnessā€ is something Iā€™m 100% behind.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=Either way I want to encourage him. But I want to know why rockets over physics. Why not both? Why is a physics guy w a HUGE risk appetite not trying to do for Einstein &amp; his speed limit what Einstein did for Newtonā€™s Gravity? If you know the answer, Iā€™d love to know it as well.
|timestamp=6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|content=@finaltoe Physics is subject to survivor bias in a system of perverse incentives. We induce physicists to work within failed paradigms if they want to eat or house their families. Itā€™s an insane thing to do. We shoot ourselves in the foot when we take away their independence.
|timestamp=6:36 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@jetpen No one sane wants to have to lean on time dilation for the reason you state.
But I *formally* agree.
|timestamp=6:39 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
}}
{{Tweet
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|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1433164723957035008
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@AndrewS65627884 Sure: @elonmusk, you have an open invitation to talk whenever you want. In confidence if preferable. On a podcast if desired.
No reply needed. Keep doing you.
|timestamp=8:27 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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|timestamp=8:31 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1619420563990261760
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@mdotgru @jordanbpeterson The word has seen many wars. And eastern/Central Europe has had its borders redrawn many time. But this post-Thermonuclear scenario is entirely without meaningful precedent. And we are pretending it is merely another conventional war.
|thread=
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1619187892185874433
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@jordanbpeterson I donā€™t know Doc. After the pull out from Afghanistan, Kamala being second to the presidency, and the president having a 1/20 chance of death in any year, I think we are just tired of living and mainstaing this beautiful planet.
Seligmanā€™s ā€œ[[Learned Helplessness]]ā€ at global scale.
|timestamp=4:17 AM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1619192877623701504
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@hereforElon @jordanbpeterson Thatā€™s what they do: Prebunk any one capable of forcing investigation.
|timestamp=4:37 AM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1619418824788574208
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@brucefenton @jordanbpeterson Are you kidding???
|timestamp=7:35 PM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1619418941033709569
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@brucefenton @jordanbpeterson You have got to be kidding.
|timestamp=7:35 PM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1619420088687558656
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@mdotgru @jordanbpeterson Sorry to lose you. This is happening at two levels: national &amp; planet-wide.
At the national level Ukraine must defend itself from its aggressor.
But you have to use both lenses. Backing a massive thermonuclear power into a conventional corner in a 1/2 proxy war is totally new.
|timestamp=7:40 PM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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|timestamp=7:42 PM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1683003369458114560
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@nandor117 Forgot Rabi. Super inspiring story along with Schwinger.
|thread=
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682977588484947969
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=It is an interesting question as to who inspires us in physics. Here is a list of 20th century giants whose work inspired me that might work as protagonists with interesting stories that deserve to be considered along with the best known Einstein/Hawking/Oppenheimer/Etc.:
[[CN Yang]] (with Lee and Simons)</br>
[[Paul Dirac]]</br>
Ernst Stueckelberg</br>
[[Madame Wu]]</br>
David Bohm</br>
Abdus Salam</br>
[[Ken Wilson]]</br>
[[Emmy Noether]]</br>
Ettore Majorana</br>
Carlo Rubio</br>
Shin'ichirō Tomonaga</br>
[[Lev Landau]]</br>
Simon Van der Meer</br>
Freeman Dyson</br>
Julian Schwinger</br>
Paul Ehrenfest</br>
John VonNeumann</br>
Feza Gursey</br>
Wolfgang Pauli</br>
Louis and [[Ed Witten|Edward Witten]]</br>
Hans Bethe</br>
George Sudarshan</br>
Vera Rubin</br>
Gerard 't Hooft
Not all of those stories areā€¦uhā€¦simple.
Would be curious to hear names from others.
|quote=
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|nameurl=https://x.com/sama/status/1682809958734131200
|name=Sam Altman
|usernameurl=https://x.com/sama
|username=sama
|content=i was hoping that the oppenheimer movie would inspire a generation of kids to be physicists but it really missed the mark on that.
let's get that movie made!
(i think the social network managed to do this for startup founders.)
|timestamp=5:48 PM Ā· Jul 22, 2023
}}
|timestamp=4:54 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682977591836196866
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=But letā€™s face facts: inspiration is not the issue. Fundamental Physics needs to be a good life. What is holding us back is:
A) Terrible Pay.
B) Worse Odds of Survival
C) Decoupling of Success at Physics from Success in Physics
D) The Matthew Effect.
E) Math and Physics Pricks
F) Tyranny of large programs over individuals.
G) Multi Decade Stagnation
H) Un Scientific And even Anti-scientific behavior.
I) The Matilde Effect
J) The Sudarshan Effect
K) Ethics Collapse
L) Needlessly long pedagogical sequence (e.g. intro physics -> Classical Mechanics -> Grad Classical Mechanics -> Symplectic Geometry)Ā  driven by history.
M) Socializing physics into a team sport in areas dominated by individuals and iconoclasts.
N) Tolerance for Program level failure (e.g. *obsessive* use of toy model physics to evade a reckoning).
O) Intolerance for individual error and failure by those in programs.
P) Failure to reward early contributions (e.g. *Abelian* Chern Simons [[Quantum Field Theory|QFT]]).
Q) Atrocious MSM journalism distorting the public understanding.
R) Relentless discussion of woo physics in public and 3-5 real topics (e.g. somebodies cat).
S) [[Learned Helplessness]] coming from over-learning [[Ken Wilson]].
T) Inability to support motherhood of female physicists.
U) Inability to keep physics marriages easily together with jobs.
V) DEI loyalty oaths and loss of autonomy.
W) Flooding of markets with disposable labor and abuse apprenticeship as labor.
X) Kicking up on attribution.
Y) Overpaying for [[Cherry Topping|cherry topping]].
Z) Fetishizing the quantum when innovation in classical field theory remains the heart of [[Quantum Field Theory|QFT]].
|timestamp=4:55 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682977595321720832
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=But lastly, if outsiders want to fund and fix movies, you will find that going to the ā€œLeading physicistsā€ wonā€™t work. [[Peer Review|Peer review]] canā€™t work when the leadership *is* the problem. You get more failure.
You need to hold meetings where you get disagreement. So choose the leaders and iconoclasts with great care. Patrick Collison isnā€™t terrible at this. B+. Best I have ever seen. Start there. Good luck. šŸ™
|timestamp=4:55 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682982386936565762
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=So you have my list. It is incomplete and idiosyncratic. Iā€™d love to have your corrections and additions.
Soā€¦.Where is yours? Thanks again.
|timestamp=5:14 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682978751288602624
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@Perterra1 No. And it doesnā€™t include people for different reasons. Feynman is already known to the public. People
have no idea who Robert Herman is. Etc.
|timestamp=4:59 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682979580552835073
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@Perterra1 @patrickc Man is incredible. On so many levels.
|timestamp=5:02 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682980248458067968
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@illogicalUSA It took zero. Not as artful as I could have been. But there are so many issues.
|timestamp=5:05 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682980760020561921
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@DrBrianKeating Not true. At least Three. But to your point, this is just the list that inspired meā€¦and I am not a physicist.
Hint: Iā€™m looking for your list. Doctor.
|timestamp=5:07 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682981552152608770
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@darreljlewis1 @Perterra1 Itā€™s also *deliberately* incomplete.
|timestamp=5:10 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682981883162894336
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@bluesneakerdog @Perterra1 @patrickc The clarity is double edged. But letā€™s just say I trust Patrick more than anyone else when I disagree with him.
|timestamp=5:12 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682982386936565762
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=So you have my list. It is incomplete and idiosyncratic. Iā€™d love to have your corrections and additions.
Soā€¦.Where is yours? Thanks again.
|timestamp=5:14 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682983392369885184
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@alexattack88 Ran out of letters. Devanagari next time.
|timestamp=5:18 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682983512570306560
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@ziegler34 Damn you Matthew!
|timestamp=5:18 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682983649224818688
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@KeithJensonn @MarkSeanPuls Already well known.
|timestamp=5:19 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682983884173062144
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@ThePudyTat Aware. Bizarre.
|timestamp=5:20 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682984100657864704
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@complex_maths If I put them on we wouldnā€™t have a general discussion. See Paul Ehrenfest.
|timestamp=5:20 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682985873120395264
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@renegademormon @Perterra1 I laughed. Didnā€™t see it comingā€¦
|timestamp=5:27 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682986402173140992
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@Circusponi Funny
|timestamp=5:30 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682987551617961985
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@raulsplay I made the name up: but the fact is that EVERYONE who matters will get it. And without explanation.
|timestamp=5:34 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1682989993822679040
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@MrJPL @witten271 The greatest of our time.
|timestamp=5:44 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
}}
|timestamp=6:37 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1774175799236858187
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@WeLivetoServe @martinmbauer No kidding.
|thread=
{{Tweet
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|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1773742711579050158
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@martinmbauer So letā€™s talk about the best new theories with new particle predictions.
What are your favorite top 5 theories formulated over say the last 25 years ranked by well motivated particle predictions just as you see it Martin? Then as the community sees them? Thx.
|timestamp=4:03 PM Ā· Mar 29, 2024
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1774053944467374254
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=Iā€™m not truly understanding even though I think I follow everything you wrote. I sense the word ā€œagnosticā€ is doing a lot of heavy lifting in not giving me 5 modern theories.
One way of making sense of what you just posted is that there isnā€™t enough information in the Wilsonian EFT framing to want to worry about any particles/fields/dof that arenā€™t strictly needed to close the observed physics off within the current energy regime. Is that what you mean??
If soā€¦yikes.
|timestamp=12:39 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1774092904459629027
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=Nice to meet you.
I am not unaware of thisā€¦but I am shocked by the *change* in the interpretation of EFT during the String Era.
40 years ago, the Standard Model was considered geometrically beautiful but mysterious. ā€œSO(10)ā€ was an example of how to get a 3 factor reductive Lie group and a bizarre series of internal quantum numbers to become elegant. In short, the SM was an EFT, but not a random one. It was a coherent idea that pointed the way towards its own preferred completion/extension. Oddly, String phenomenology recognized this.
Then as the field spun off into mathematically informed medieval theology, the SM started to be seen as ugly. A random EFT without a preferred extrapolation towards its Planckian revelation. Seeing the SM as in anyway distinguished became seen as ā€œnot getting Wilsonā€™s pointā€ analogous to archaic views on strong reductionism.
This is such a disaster to think this is what Martin means. Itā€™s the physics version of Seligmanā€™s ā€œ[[Learned Helplessness]]ā€ā€˜theory.
|timestamp=3:14 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1774099388329234800
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=Longer discussion. But SUSY and GUTs both got associated with particular instantiations of general ideas by zealots.
The SU(5) and MSSM variants failed and then, oddly, the community moved to a dysfunctional interpretation. If no observed SU(5) proton decay then downgrade ALL GUTs. Similar for E-W scale super partners.
The community is just bizarrely intellectually dysfunctional now. Strings has an infinite leash and the other good ideas are ignored with this monstrous new EFT defeatism as the new sophistication. I still canā€™t believe this is our world.
|timestamp=3:40 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
}}
{{Tweet
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|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1774141554611097804
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=That gives me some insight into your worldview. If I understand correctly, it hugs the shore of observed SM phenomenology to avoid tilting at windmills of geometry or chasing shadows of quantum gravity for the most part.
Right handed neutrinos, for example, are implicit within the old ā€œSO(10)ā€ GUT, but you list them here as ā€˜newā€™ because they arenā€™t here to fill out a Weyl 16 for Spin(10). They just are being posited without much motivation beyond the dark sector. Wilsonian agnosticism as it were.
|timestamp=6:28 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1774141890235130285
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@martinmbauer Got it. Is this exciting to you? Are you hopeful here? High conviction?
|timestamp=6:29 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
}}
|timestamp=8:44 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
}}
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1957711418519617893
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@StephenLeeCarr ā€œBitcoin Fixes This.ā€
|thread=
{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1957707487580176628
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=With respect to our institutions in the west, I canā€™t stop seeing the fundamental division as being into two basic groups:
A) HIGH TRUST: ā€œSure, they arenā€™t perfect; I myself like to think independently. But they are better than any of the crazy alternatives.ā€
B) LOW TRUST: ā€œI donā€™t get how anyone still listens to legacy institutions. They are over.ā€
ā€”ā€”
I bring this up because what I donā€™t see is C)
C) DECLINING TRUST: ā€œI cannot believe that our previously high quality institutions are being looted and/or crumbling at this rate. They are decaying from a very high height, so they are still working in many areas but they are already pure poison in others. We canā€™t live modern prosperous secure lives without them. So why are we exhibiting [[Learned Helplessness|universal learned helplessness]] with respect to getting rid of the rot? Why the all or nothing thinking? What is going on?Ā  Itā€™s like someone attacked us by convincing us to hollow ourselves out so you could knock us over with a feather.ā€
Iā€™m in C). And I find it much more helpful to replace Left / Right with High Trust / Low Trust as our dominant political axis. High Trust roughly correlating with Blue and Low Trust roughly correlated with Red.
What are your thoughts on this?
Thx.šŸ™
|timestamp=7:33 AM Ā· Aug 19, 2025
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{{Tweet
|image=Eric profile picture.jpg
|nameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1957711033365328326
|name=Eric Weinstein
|usernameurl=https://x.com/EricRWeinstein
|username=EricRWeinstein
|content=@NicoleBehnam Every word Nicole.
|timestamp=7:47 AM Ā· Aug 19, 2025
}}
|timestamp=7:49 AM Ā· Aug 19, 2025
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Revision as of 22:57, 20 March 2026

Learned helplessness on The Basics Guide

Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

Attempt @1tweet #foo summary: 'Massively parallel learned helplessness intervention via saturation Asabiyyah-boarding'

11:03 PM Ā· Jun 30, 2010


Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

Obviously unworkable ideas 1, Learned Helplessness 0.

Congratulations to everyone at SpaceX.

8:03 AM Ā· May 22, 2012


Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

It's easy to miss a bigger point: folks shaking off our national learned helplessness. Folks who can overwhelm D.C. won't need fear as much. https://t.co/cBWHpgzcz6

8:38 PM Ā· Jan 21, 2017
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

@Martyrmade Interesting point. But this is a warning shot across the bow of a new ship. A peaceful demonstration of less peaceful power.

8:45 PM Ā· Jan 21, 2017


Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

Can we drown out @united's safety script w passenger participation? Ex: "In the unlikely event of a waterboarding" #UnitedAirlinesHorrorShow

2:09 PM Ā· Apr 12, 2017
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

.@united There has to be a hack against mere learned helplessness. If we can't avoid @united, driving their cost is necessary to complete the market.

2:13 PM Ā· Apr 12, 2017


Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

Iā€™m numbed. I think Iā€™m done talking about whatever the current mass shooting is. I want to say to all of us who still have children, parents, spouses, hold them close. Iā€™m so sorry for all who are about to lose them during September. Which hasnā€™t happened yet. But it will.

1:50 AM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

Can we stop pretending that we care as a nation? Because clearly we donā€™t. There can be 10 of these in a month and we donā€™t do a thing. We donā€™t try things. We donā€™t experiment. We sit here like low agency idiots suffering from learned helplessness.

1:50 AM Ā· Sep 01, 2019


Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

I suggested that Iā€™m numbed by our learned helplessness around an increasingly lethal US mass shooting problem *without* mentioning gun control. Suddenly Iā€™m an irrational jerk who doesnā€™t care about auto accidents, water, pools, etc and let everyone down?

2:56 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

Immediately lecturing folks feeling specific loss of life in a single community (and who are not yet even talking 2nd amendment rights) on general swimming pool safety, or how disappointed you are in the logic of the posters is bad optics & an excellent way to lose your argument.

2:56 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

Word to the wise: wait for someone (like me) to actually make a bad argument. I might! But a mass shooting of say N dead in one school community with a note from a deliberate killer with a known mental health history is a bigger deal for society than N diffuse auto fatalities.

2:56 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2019
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

BTW I donā€™t mean to pick on the specific post. There are many such tweets and DMs making the same points with not much variation. But it has become almost an automated reflex despite there being some validity in the arguments.

3:08 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2019


Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

Letā€™s talk about the next major US school shooting with more than 3 dead. Those folks are currently alive. They are just having a day today like anyone else. They donā€™t need our thoughts & prayers yet. We could take action to save those lives. We know it is going to happen.

Nu?

4:03 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

@RealJimbabwe Donā€™t forget malaria. Or suicide. Or snakes.

4:09 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

@RichyDispatch I donā€™t like mondays.

4:10 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

@CarrisJake Hereā€™s my plan: That we begin talking ahead of time and not retroactively. Move to the next one. Like it is ā€œGroundhog dayā€. Letā€™s set a schedule of anticipation and see if it changes anything. Why are we exhibiting learned helplessness? Makes no sense.

4:12 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

@CarrisJake Gun control is feared by many of my fellow Americans. Ok. So...I want the strong 2A crowd to take the lead. What real plan do we have that we can fund and implement to get these deaths toward numbers that arenā€™t an embarrassment?

4:15 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
Eric profile picture.jpg
Eric Weinstein

@Lann5000 @CarrisJake Okay. Do we raise taxes and do mental health checks? What is it we do to avoid restrictions on firearm ownership to get good results?

4:17 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@IbnChristo So, this is a negative externality of freedom and we are on the efficient frontier?

4:17 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@Beefalo37 I just took it. My solution is to shift the burden onto future shootings so that we can find out why we refuse to cry over milk that is as yet unspilled. As it were.

4:19 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@Thinkofwhy So this is too far down the list and we should not over focus?

4:20 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@JamesDeanAnder1 So, focus on the media distortion?

4:21 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@JamesDeanAnder1 @RealSaavedra So prioritize things that are more deadly?

4:29 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@HamfistHarold @CarrisJake I donā€™t hate armed guards. Fill me in. How does this part of the conversation go when you bring it up? Iā€™m not a veteran of this stalemate. More of a casual observer. Thanks.

5:47 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@CrisVerdonik I want to understand what a conversation looks like that isnā€™t held in the aftermath of a shooting. I always see this done after a shooting with bodies that are still warm and grieving parents everywhere. I want to understand the issue. Why do we deadlock? Itā€™s sad & surprising.

5:52 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@CoffeeBear5 Sure.

5:52 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@MiTenYo This is a highly conserved quasi response. Not without some merit. But also oddly reflexive as well.

5:54 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@BadHombreMarcoB That makes some sense. It is a possible approach. Does that inhibit shooters or just limit their damage in your opinion? Has it been studied?

5:56 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@BadHombreMarcoB Iā€™m just ignorant of the theory here.

5:57 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019
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Eric Weinstein

@Neubian Agreed.

5:58 PM Ā· Nov 25, 2019


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Eric Weinstein

Listen carefully: you donā€™t have to elect Biden or Trump.

The world has woken up via being suddenly shut in doors by crazy incompetent people largely born in the 1940s and 1950s without a coherent explanation. Or plan.

Lives lost. Nurses sacrificed. Jobs & businesses destroyed.

5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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Eric Weinstein

Pick someone who never met Jeffrey Epstein. Pick someone who can code or with a masters degree or better in STEM.

You donā€™t have to keep picking the card the magician is forcing you to select as your card. Itā€™s not YOUR card. Itā€™s the magicianā€™s card. Grab the magicians wrist.

5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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Eric Weinstein

You would be better off with a thoughtful and competent 45 year old electrician or self made businessperson as president. Almost no ordinary people have family business interests in China or Ukraine. Chose anyone without dementia. Pick someone who canā€™t remember the moon landing.

5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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Eric Weinstein

You donā€™t have to take these choices. *Nobody* smart wants these people except to defeat each other. You donā€™t really like Fox. Or CNN. Or the NYT. Except when they go after your enemies.

Okay. So go cold turkey. Call them all what they are: The UnWorkables.

5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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Eric Weinstein

If the enormous generation of you young folk canā€™t use this mismanagement of a pandemic by a bipartisan kleptocratic gerontocracy, then you arenā€™t thinking like young folk at all. Demand your debt free future and the removal of this preposterous class of ancient legacy predators.

5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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Eric Weinstein

That card says ā€œBidenā€. Take that card and a lighter and set it on fire. Then grab the deck and pick another card, rifle it to check for markings on the back, look to see if they all say Biden, and chose a different card at random. This was never a primary. There was no election.

5:54 PM Ā· May 06, 2020
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Eric Weinstein

Learned helplessness is UnAmerican. This is like China or Russia controlling our minds from a bad sci-fi thriller. But we are being controlled by our grandparents and parents instead. And they donā€™t care.

This is beyond insane and it has never been like this. Ever.

Rant over.

5:58 PM Ā· May 06, 2020


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Eric Weinstein

I think thatā€™s great. Where we differ is that I donā€™t think Earth, our Moon & Mars plus space stations connected by rockets give us much real diversity. Itā€™s barely doable. But assume you could make it work. I would want to run 1000s of uncorrelated experiments as most will fail.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

Letā€™s be clear about this weird sounding issue.

@elonmusk is one of the only minds properly focused in public on the issue of the current danger to human consciousness from having all known intelligent life in the universe on a single terrestrial surface. His top idea: rockets.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

But yes, he believes. In fun. In hope. In ending the epidemic of learned helplessness that has infected everyone else. So Iā€™m a pretty die hard Elon supporter. Not because I agree w/ everything. But he gets **the** big issue right. We need to end the single correlated experiment.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

And if we are stuck in this solar system with the physics we know there is only one good surface and two marginal ones.

Faster than light spacetime travel is bullshit. But going beyond Einstein is not.

Itā€™s unbelievably hard, but everything Elon does is hard. Like hope.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

But because Elon is so smart, I donā€™t discount the idea that he isnā€™t interested in finding out if post-Einsteinian physics for some reason. I just doesnā€™t add up to me, but maybe he knows something I donā€™t. But north of $100B w/ his knowledge of physics, he could change it all.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

Now he may have a reason. But I have never heard him address this so it just makes no sense to me. No one is taking the need to go beyond Einstein seriously so we are pretty much trapped here in this solar system with the physics we know. That means three terrestrial surfaces.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

So on the main issue we agree. The second issue is where we differ. A multi multi billionaire (12 digits!) as smart as Elon w a physics background could diversify & place a small 2nd bet on rendering General Relativity a mere effective theory by single handedly fixing physics.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

I just want to know why no one asks this question. Lex could do it. Joe could do it. But he doesnā€™t seem to address it so I have no idea what is going on. Itā€™s not some special insight of mine. Our best hope for his stated dream is new physics. And making physics rich is cheap.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

And the two multi billionaires I believe have the best technical chops to do this are Jim Simons and Elon Musk. But no one wants to build institutions that can do this because our institutions havenā€™t worked well enough since the Apollo program. So, Iā€™m hopeful he gets asked.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

Now that doesnā€™t strike me as a small ask. Itā€™s a big bill. But it is also our best hope. Imagine COVID was radioactive fallout from a serious nuclear exchange and compute half lives. Or imagine a climate disaster.

Elon shouldnā€™t have to do this. But government canā€™t anymore.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

Imagine you wanted to pay 2m salary to all the top 50 theorists in the world for 10 years to get them all to move to a couple of centers to free them from careerist temptations so they could at last swing for the fences. The salaries would be about 0.005 of current net worth.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein
  1. OccupyMars is good, but #FreeThePhysicists isnā€™t even as popular as #FreeTheNipple or #FreeBeer

Take a look around you. Much as I love it, this place is likely going to blow.

Elon is right: time to diversify. And we need to have fun if we are going to be saving ourselves. šŸ™

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

There isnā€™t much left that works in this area. Iā€™m still betting on Elon making sense. Itā€™s one of our last really good hopes. And returning fun and mischief to public spirited scientific attempts to ā€œpreserve the light of human consciousnessā€ is something Iā€™m 100% behind.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

Either way I want to encourage him. But I want to know why rockets over physics. Why not both? Why is a physics guy w a HUGE risk appetite not trying to do for Einstein & his speed limit what Einstein did for Newtonā€™s Gravity? If you know the answer, Iā€™d love to know it as well.

6:30 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

@finaltoe Physics is subject to survivor bias in a system of perverse incentives. We induce physicists to work within failed paradigms if they want to eat or house their families. Itā€™s an insane thing to do. We shoot ourselves in the foot when we take away their independence.

6:36 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

@jetpen No one sane wants to have to lean on time dilation for the reason you state.

But I *formally* agree.

6:39 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

@AndrewS65627884 Sure: @elonmusk, you have an open invitation to talk whenever you want. In confidence if preferable. On a podcast if desired.

No reply needed. Keep doing you.

8:27 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021
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Eric Weinstein

@agoonforhire Thank you for this!

8:31 PM Ā· Sep 01, 2021


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Eric Weinstein

@jordanbpeterson I donā€™t know Doc. After the pull out from Afghanistan, Kamala being second to the presidency, and the president having a 1/20 chance of death in any year, I think we are just tired of living and mainstaing this beautiful planet.

Seligmanā€™s ā€œLearned Helplessnessā€ at global scale.

4:17 AM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@hereforElon @jordanbpeterson Thatā€™s what they do: Prebunk any one capable of forcing investigation.

4:37 AM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@brucefenton @jordanbpeterson Are you kidding???

7:35 PM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@brucefenton @jordanbpeterson You have got to be kidding.

7:35 PM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@mdotgru @jordanbpeterson Sorry to lose you. This is happening at two levels: national & planet-wide.

At the national level Ukraine must defend itself from its aggressor.

But you have to use both lenses. Backing a massive thermonuclear power into a conventional corner in a 1/2 proxy war is totally new.

7:40 PM Ā· Jan 28, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@mdotgru @jordanbpeterson The word has seen many wars. And eastern/Central Europe has had its borders redrawn many time. But this post-Thermonuclear scenario is entirely without meaningful precedent. And we are pretending it is merely another conventional war.

7:42 PM Ā· Jan 28, 2023


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Eric Weinstein

It is an interesting question as to who inspires us in physics. Here is a list of 20th century giants whose work inspired me that might work as protagonists with interesting stories that deserve to be considered along with the best known Einstein/Hawking/Oppenheimer/Etc.:

CN Yang (with Lee and Simons)
Paul Dirac
Ernst Stueckelberg
Madame Wu
David Bohm
Abdus Salam
Ken Wilson
Emmy Noether
Ettore Majorana
Carlo Rubio
Shin'ichirō Tomonaga
Lev Landau
Simon Van der Meer
Freeman Dyson
Julian Schwinger
Paul Ehrenfest
John VonNeumann
Feza Gursey
Wolfgang Pauli
Louis and Edward Witten
Hans Bethe
George Sudarshan
Vera Rubin
Gerard 't Hooft

Not all of those stories areā€¦uhā€¦simple.

Would be curious to hear names from others.

4:54 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Sam Altman

i was hoping that the oppenheimer movie would inspire a generation of kids to be physicists but it really missed the mark on that.

let's get that movie made!

(i think the social network managed to do this for startup founders.)

5:48 PM Ā· Jul 22, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

But letā€™s face facts: inspiration is not the issue. Fundamental Physics needs to be a good life. What is holding us back is:

A) Terrible Pay.

B) Worse Odds of Survival

C) Decoupling of Success at Physics from Success in Physics

D) The Matthew Effect.

E) Math and Physics Pricks

F) Tyranny of large programs over individuals.

G) Multi Decade Stagnation

H) Un Scientific And even Anti-scientific behavior.

I) The Matilde Effect

J) The Sudarshan Effect

K) Ethics Collapse

L) Needlessly long pedagogical sequence (e.g. intro physics -> Classical Mechanics -> Grad Classical Mechanics -> Symplectic Geometry) driven by history.

M) Socializing physics into a team sport in areas dominated by individuals and iconoclasts.

N) Tolerance for Program level failure (e.g. *obsessive* use of toy model physics to evade a reckoning).

O) Intolerance for individual error and failure by those in programs.

P) Failure to reward early contributions (e.g. *Abelian* Chern Simons QFT).

Q) Atrocious MSM journalism distorting the public understanding.

R) Relentless discussion of woo physics in public and 3-5 real topics (e.g. somebodies cat).

S) Learned Helplessness coming from over-learning Ken Wilson.

T) Inability to support motherhood of female physicists.

U) Inability to keep physics marriages easily together with jobs.

V) DEI loyalty oaths and loss of autonomy.

W) Flooding of markets with disposable labor and abuse apprenticeship as labor.

X) Kicking up on attribution.

Y) Overpaying for cherry topping.

Z) Fetishizing the quantum when innovation in classical field theory remains the heart of QFT.

4:55 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

But lastly, if outsiders want to fund and fix movies, you will find that going to the ā€œLeading physicistsā€ wonā€™t work. Peer review canā€™t work when the leadership *is* the problem. You get more failure.

You need to hold meetings where you get disagreement. So choose the leaders and iconoclasts with great care. Patrick Collison isnā€™t terrible at this. B+. Best I have ever seen. Start there. Good luck. šŸ™

4:55 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

So you have my list. It is incomplete and idiosyncratic. Iā€™d love to have your corrections and additions.

Soā€¦.Where is yours? Thanks again.

5:14 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@Perterra1 No. And it doesnā€™t include people for different reasons. Feynman is already known to the public. People have no idea who Robert Herman is. Etc.

4:59 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@Perterra1 @patrickc Man is incredible. On so many levels.

5:02 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@illogicalUSA It took zero. Not as artful as I could have been. But there are so many issues.

5:05 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@DrBrianKeating Not true. At least Three. But to your point, this is just the list that inspired meā€¦and I am not a physicist.

Hint: Iā€™m looking for your list. Doctor.

5:07 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@darreljlewis1 @Perterra1 Itā€™s also *deliberately* incomplete.

5:10 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@bluesneakerdog @Perterra1 @patrickc The clarity is double edged. But letā€™s just say I trust Patrick more than anyone else when I disagree with him.

5:12 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

So you have my list. It is incomplete and idiosyncratic. Iā€™d love to have your corrections and additions.

Soā€¦.Where is yours? Thanks again.

5:14 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@alexattack88 Ran out of letters. Devanagari next time.

5:18 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@ziegler34 Damn you Matthew!

5:18 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@KeithJensonn @MarkSeanPuls Already well known.

5:19 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@ThePudyTat Aware. Bizarre.

5:20 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@complex_maths If I put them on we wouldnā€™t have a general discussion. See Paul Ehrenfest.

5:20 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@renegademormon @Perterra1 I laughed. Didnā€™t see it comingā€¦

5:27 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@Circusponi Funny

5:30 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@raulsplay I made the name up: but the fact is that EVERYONE who matters will get it. And without explanation.

5:34 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@MrJPL @witten271 The greatest of our time.

5:44 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023
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Eric Weinstein

@nandor117 Forgot Rabi. Super inspiring story along with Schwinger.

6:37 AM Ā· Jul 23, 2023


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Eric Weinstein

@martinmbauer So letā€™s talk about the best new theories with new particle predictions.

What are your favorite top 5 theories formulated over say the last 25 years ranked by well motivated particle predictions just as you see it Martin? Then as the community sees them? Thx.

4:03 PM Ā· Mar 29, 2024
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Eric Weinstein

Iā€™m not truly understanding even though I think I follow everything you wrote. I sense the word ā€œagnosticā€ is doing a lot of heavy lifting in not giving me 5 modern theories.

One way of making sense of what you just posted is that there isnā€™t enough information in the Wilsonian EFT framing to want to worry about any particles/fields/dof that arenā€™t strictly needed to close the observed physics off within the current energy regime. Is that what you mean??

If soā€¦yikes.

12:39 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
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Eric Weinstein

Nice to meet you.

I am not unaware of thisā€¦but I am shocked by the *change* in the interpretation of EFT during the String Era.

40 years ago, the Standard Model was considered geometrically beautiful but mysterious. ā€œSO(10)ā€ was an example of how to get a 3 factor reductive Lie group and a bizarre series of internal quantum numbers to become elegant. In short, the SM was an EFT, but not a random one. It was a coherent idea that pointed the way towards its own preferred completion/extension. Oddly, String phenomenology recognized this.

Then as the field spun off into mathematically informed medieval theology, the SM started to be seen as ugly. A random EFT without a preferred extrapolation towards its Planckian revelation. Seeing the SM as in anyway distinguished became seen as ā€œnot getting Wilsonā€™s pointā€ analogous to archaic views on strong reductionism.

This is such a disaster to think this is what Martin means. Itā€™s the physics version of Seligmanā€™s ā€œLearned Helplessnessā€ā€˜theory.

3:14 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
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Eric Weinstein

Longer discussion. But SUSY and GUTs both got associated with particular instantiations of general ideas by zealots.

The SU(5) and MSSM variants failed and then, oddly, the community moved to a dysfunctional interpretation. If no observed SU(5) proton decay then downgrade ALL GUTs. Similar for E-W scale super partners.

The community is just bizarrely intellectually dysfunctional now. Strings has an infinite leash and the other good ideas are ignored with this monstrous new EFT defeatism as the new sophistication. I still canā€™t believe this is our world.

3:40 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
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Eric Weinstein

That gives me some insight into your worldview. If I understand correctly, it hugs the shore of observed SM phenomenology to avoid tilting at windmills of geometry or chasing shadows of quantum gravity for the most part.

Right handed neutrinos, for example, are implicit within the old ā€œSO(10)ā€ GUT, but you list them here as ā€˜newā€™ because they arenā€™t here to fill out a Weyl 16 for Spin(10). They just are being posited without much motivation beyond the dark sector. Wilsonian agnosticism as it were.

6:28 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
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Eric Weinstein

@martinmbauer Got it. Is this exciting to you? Are you hopeful here? High conviction?

6:29 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024
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Eric Weinstein

@WeLivetoServe @martinmbauer No kidding.

8:44 PM Ā· Mar 30, 2024


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Eric Weinstein

With respect to our institutions in the west, I canā€™t stop seeing the fundamental division as being into two basic groups:

A) HIGH TRUST: ā€œSure, they arenā€™t perfect; I myself like to think independently. But they are better than any of the crazy alternatives.ā€

B) LOW TRUST: ā€œI donā€™t get how anyone still listens to legacy institutions. They are over.ā€

ā€”ā€”

I bring this up because what I donā€™t see is C)

C) DECLINING TRUST: ā€œI cannot believe that our previously high quality institutions are being looted and/or crumbling at this rate. They are decaying from a very high height, so they are still working in many areas but they are already pure poison in others. We canā€™t live modern prosperous secure lives without them. So why are we exhibiting universal learned helplessness with respect to getting rid of the rot? Why the all or nothing thinking? What is going on? Itā€™s like someone attacked us by convincing us to hollow ourselves out so you could knock us over with a feather.ā€

Iā€™m in C). And I find it much more helpful to replace Left / Right with High Trust / Low Trust as our dominant political axis. High Trust roughly correlating with Blue and Low Trust roughly correlated with Red.

What are your thoughts on this?

Thx.šŸ™

7:33 AM Ā· Aug 19, 2025
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Eric Weinstein

@NicoleBehnam Every word Nicole.

7:47 AM Ā· Aug 19, 2025
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Eric Weinstein

@StephenLeeCarr ā€œBitcoin Fixes This.ā€

7:49 AM Ā· Aug 19, 2025


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